Starring Bezzie, her Mad Scientist husband and their kids Chunky, Moochie, and Baby Sister in a whirlwind "adventure" involving excitement, loss, separation, a series of financially draining transnational moves, hitting rock bottom, climbing up again, and a slight change of plans. Oh, and there will be some knitting involved too!

Monday, August 04, 2008

Salsa! Not Seltzer!

Oof.

Again, I had this wonderful idea I would sit down and blog poetically about my adventures in canning salsa this weekend.

But I'm chasing tail tonight due to one of my tires going flat and helping Dr. Mad Scientist change it. I would have changed it myself before I got home, but yeah, he struggled with loosening the lugnuts. I'm not sure I would have been able to do it myself.

And as luck would have it--when we put the donut on--guess what else has had a slow leak? Ah delightful.

At least the mechanic is literally only 2 blocks away. I'll just limp the car there tomorrow morning and drive Dr. Mad Scientist's car to work (which he has informed me likes to stall at red lights so you have to put it into neutral each time you come to a complete stop...ha ha!)

Chunky informs me that "Now [I'll] fit in with all the New Jersey people." because apparently he's seen a lot of people with flat tires around here. Hee hee.

But on to salsa!

Jersey tomaters are ripe--so I stocked up on plum and beefsteak (ok, so maybe not the best for salsifying) at the Montclair Farmer's Market.

I also scored all those jalepenos you see for $1. The tomatoes were like $6.

Skinning the tomaters was quite fun. I had only ever read about it and I only burned my fingers once.

After I skinned the tomaters, I chopped all my ingredients up.

I love my husband, but for the life of him, he can NEVER get a non-blurry shot when the camera is in his hands.

Here's everything chopped.

Aye de mi!

Then you let the mixture trip out on some acid.

And in the meantime, I had taken all my washed jars and set them to soak in a warm bath of water in my kettle.

Start heating your salsa.

10 minutes before the salsa was done (you let it simmer for 10 minutes after it reaches a boil), I pulled my jars out of their hot tub and laid them out to dry.

Then I filled the jars.

I only got 4 pints, which is about right. I halved the recipe. It called for a yield of 7-9 pints.

Then I set my pretties a'boiling in their bath.

After 15 minutes of boiling, I cooled them and tested their seals--they sealed!!

Of course 4 pints is nothing for us. We're salsa fiends. I've already used a pint in the crock pot chili we had for dinner tonite.

Definately a fun learning experience and I can't wait to make more salsa and of course experiment with backyard apple applesauce.

26 Comments:

I had a flat once. Neither the hubby nor I together could get the lug nuts off. We called our roadside assistance and the strapping young man had to use one of those things that looks like a giant "x". He sat on the ground, put the end on the lug nut, pushed with his feet and pulled with his arms (Did I mention he was built?) and even he had trouble getting them off. Afterwards, I thanked him and he said that some garages use an "impact gun" to put the lug nuts on. Which is to say a compressed air wrench. How is anyone supposed to get the tire off in case of a flat? My hubby worked in a shop for not quite a year in his misspent youth and kept muttering about how they should be screwed on "finger-tight". Which means by hand, so you can get the damn things off if you have to.

That salsa looks good! Great price on the jalapenos too. I'm ashamed to say I can't change a flat tire. I only owned a car (well 2 of them) for about 2 years and luckily the only time it had a flat was when hubby was driving it.

Tex-mex party at Bezzie's house? Have you thought of trying to make jam? I love coming up with jam flavours (blends, really) that you wouldn't find in the grocery store. My Mom makes a mean blackberry-raspberry jam. Or chutney! I love mango chutney and samosas... hmm. I think I need to go out for Indian food again.

Do you know why everyone likes Salsa? So you are fitting in to NJ jsut fine. Glad that Chunkie is keeping you all up with the Jones. You would never know without him.Moose got our salsa this morning. Because everyone likes to say "SALSA, SALSA, SALSA"!!Love, Mom

Hey! I canned some pickled banana peppers/jalapenos last weekend. They have to sit for 2 weeks before tasting though (I'll blog about it then). Your salsa looks fantastic! I love homemade jellies. Anything canned would make for a great Christmas gift if you're looking for ideas.